Other places to live in CO or elsewhere (Denver, Lake City: rental, work)

[sidburn]

I've lived in 2 Front Range cities during my lifetime: Denver and Ft. Collins. I love Colorado, but I don't like living in a state/region that seems to be repeatedly struck with gun-related tragedies. Are there other "quiter" places in the state that don't seem to have as many of these things going on that you can think of? Also, what other states do you like that seem to not have these problems? I had been considering Washington state - a nice, blue state where none of those things ever seem to happen.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by sidburn

I don't like living in a state/region that seems to be repeatedly struck with gun-related tragedies.

I didn't want to live in Washington because it has ten letters. Colorado has eight letters.

[livecontent]

Originally Posted by Charles

I didn't want to live in Washington because it has ten letters. Colorado has eight letters.

Charles, I cannot give you a reputation--but this comment is philosophical, intelligent and hilarious....and you did all this with so few letters.

Livecontent

[CosmicWizard]

Charles, have you though of moving to Ohio, Utah, or Iowa? They only have 4 letters. Living in any of those states could save you alot of time whenever you had to write out the full name of your home state.

blessings...Franco

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by sidburn

I've lived in 2 Front Range cities during my lifetime: Denver and Ft. Collins. I love Colorado, but I don't like living in a state/region that seems to be repeatedly struck with gun-related tragedies. Are there other "quiter" places in the state that don't seem to have as many of these things going on that you can think of? Also, what other states do you like that seem to not have these problems? I had been considering Washington state - a nice, blue state where none of those things ever seem to happen.

Sadly, I don't think this is something that can be "escaped" anywhere in this country. I think that we are becoming an increasingly violent and enraged society--those at the lunatic fringe of that sometimes act out with horrific results. Some of the blame for this I place on the pervasive violence that continually bombards people on television, movies, and video games. Young people, in particular--especially those in less than ideal family situations without proper parental guidance or supervision--can be negatively influenced by such graphic violence that they are bombarded with, and--sadly--a few act out. Unfortunately, if people notice, a lot of these very violent acts are committed by young people from middle and upper class families--they aren't "gangbangers" and "homeboys" from the "hood" doing a lot of this. When parents are more concerned about themselves and accumulating "stuff" instead of investing the time to properly raise their children, it can--on occasion--lead to an angry despondent young person committing some unspeakable acts.

I am not going to get into the gun control debate here. Suffice it to say that there have been guns in American households for nearly all of this country's history. Through most of that time, guns were not often thought of by most people as an offensive weapon, except for the legitimate purpose of hunting or sport. Today, there are a lot of guns expressly marketed as an offensive weapon (for example, an assault rifle) with marketing that specifically talks about "killing power." I do find that a distrurbing commentary on some people's thinking about such weapons. Finally I must say that I don't think that guns have ever been so misused for such violent purposes as they have in the last 20 years or so.

As to why Colorado has seemed to suffer more of these tragedies than many places, I think one might look at the loss of community that occurs in so many rapidly growing urban/suburban areas, the increasingly self-centered hedonistic attitudes of many people living in such areas, the asendence of high student population schools with the attendent loss of personalized instruction and attention, the overworked and understaffed law enforcement and social service agencies in rapidly growing areas, and general public accpetance of crime and violence in many places that would have been deemed intolerable only a few years ago. All of those factors are present to one extent or another in most of metropolitan Colorado, but they are certainly not limited to here. Many metro areas have similiar issues--I sometimes think these increaingly violent acts are just one more sign that the human population is growing beyond its ability to maintain its physical and mental health.

[rebagirl]

Originally Posted by sidburn

I've lived in 2 Front Range cities during my lifetime: Denver and Ft. Collins. I love Colorado, but I don't like living in a state/region that seems to be repeatedly struck with gun-related tragedies. Are there other "quiter" places in the state that don't seem to have as many of these things going on that you can think of? Also, what other states do you like that seem to not have these problems? I had been considering Washington state - a nice, blue state where none of those things ever seem to happen.

Doesn't Washington State have an extremely high suicide rate? I know this may not be the type of gun-related tragedy you are referring to, and obviously there are many ways in which one can commit suicide, but I still thought this was worth bringing up. By the way, California is also a blue state...

[COflower]

Originally Posted by rebagirl

Doesn't Washington State have an extremely high suicide rate? I know this may not be the type of gun-related tragedy you are referring to, and obviously there are many ways in which one can commit suicide, but I still thought this was worth bringing up. By the way, California is also a blue state...

Washington and Oregon (the region) are some of the worst in the country for meth problems. Not to say it doesn't happen here but with their big populations of meth also comes with personal property crime too.

As for the OP, you can't run away from it unless you live in some little podunk town in Alaska where you have to have your home stocked up for 9 months of the year near the northern end.

Seriously. Can we count the amount of other "gun-related tragedies" that have happened elsewhere in this nation? The reason you are hyper aware is that it's right in your back/front yard. We don't hear of all the other states problems because we don't live there. Their headlines don't make our headlines a lot because it's localized.

Did you forget about the 8 that were killed in Omaha? Omaha is a very safe place to live but these things can't be avoided.

How about the mall shooting in Salt Lake City a while back? One of the most "moral" of places (I guess).

How about the shootings in Montreal in 2006? 19 were injured and Canada has very strict gun laws compared to the US.

You'd think that a college campus would be safe wouldn't you? Yeah, tell that to Virginia Tech students and faculty.

...

Good luck on finding any place that is any safer than anywhere else unless you desire to become a hermit.

Just saying.

[parkfan]

Obviously, Sidburn touched on a tender nerve by implying that Colorado creates a bumper crop of the angry tortured souls who feel the need to walk into public places and start killing citizens to quiet the voices. I hope Sidburn noticed that every single event was in a so-called gun free zone. I also hope he notices that the killers are from middle to upper middle class families where the parents are probably too involved in their careers to notice the creeping mental illness in their children. For goodness sakes! Colorado is no worse than any other state except maybe excess media coverage encourages copycat events. I would not recommend becoming a hermit either. Look what it did to Ted Kaczynski!

[sidburn]

Originally Posted by COflower

Washington and Oregon (the region) are some of the worst in the country for meth problems. Not to say it doesn't happen here but with their big populations of meth also comes with personal property crime too.

As for the OP, you can't run away from it unless you live in some little podunk town in Alaska where you have to have your home stocked up for 9 months of the year near the northern end.

Seriously. Can we count the amount of other "gun-related tragedies" that have happened elsewhere in this nation? The reason you are hyper aware is that it's right in your back/front yard. We don't hear of all the other states problems because we don't live there. Their headlines don't make our headlines a lot because it's localized.

Did you forget about the 8 that were killed in Omaha? Omaha is a very safe place to live but these things can't be avoided.

How about the mall shooting in Salt Lake City a while back? One of the most "moral" of places (I guess).

How about the shootings in Montreal in 2006? 19 were injured and Canada has very strict gun laws compared to the US.

You'd think that a college campus would be safe wouldn't you? Yeah, tell that to Virginia Tech students and faculty.

...

Good luck on finding any place that is any safer than anywhere else unless you desire to become a hermit.

Just saying.

I realize these things aren't limited to Colorado, I'm just saying it seems that CO is the only place where it happens repeatedly. There aren't many other states that have suffered MULTIPLE tragic shootings (except Texas, New York, Virginia, and California, and those states are much more populated than Colorado anyway, so more people = more crime). Part of me thinks that since Colorado has so many good aspects, maybe we need all these shootings to balance everything out.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by sidburn

Part of me thinks that since Colorado has so many good aspects, maybe we need all these shootings to balance everything out.

What?

I'm a little confused on the "we need all these shootings" part.